It's the age old problem of trying to get off work to watch the big World Cup match, and now Chinese workers may have a perfect way out.

Most World Cup games will kick off between midnight and 6am in China, so those who wish to watch live will either have to entirely forgo sleep or miss the start of their work day. Therefore, the website Taobao — the Chinese equivalent of eBay — is doing a roaring trade in counterfeit sick notes.

A pad of sick notes can be bought for as a little as 1 yuan ($0.16), but an authentic-looking note with a hospital stamp and doctor's signature can cost up to 300 yuan ($50). What a bargain!

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2) I WANT TO WATCH THE FOOTBALL! - '40% of men to sub sex for World Cup football'

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According to research from a Durex poll, 40 per cent of men admit that they will say ‘no’ to their other half so they can watch the football instead during the World Cup this summer.

The top three excuses - or 'sexcuses' - that will be given, according to the survey of 2,000 participants, will be 'I want to watch the football', followed by 'I've got a bad back' and 'I'm too tired'.

However, it also emerged that 37 percent would ditch the excuses and accept their partner’s offer of sex if they could still have the TV on to keep an eye on the pitch-side action at the same time.

If you make it to the grand old age of 87, you could be forgiven for wanting to put your feet up and take things easy.

You've earned it after a lifetime's graft: time to pick a favourite armchair, commandeer the TV remote, and grumble loudly about how kids today have no idea how hard it was for you growing up - while simultaneously insisting that things were better in the good old days. And you've even earned the right not to care about the incompatibility of holding both those views at once.

But an 87-year-old in Brazil has eschewed such pleasures, and instead is using his golden years to perfect his keepy-uppy skills while parading up and down the Rio beachfront in his full national team kit.

Meet Big Head, the psychic turtle. The 25-year-old Brazilian reptile has been tipped to be the next animal oracle following the success of Germany’s Paul the Octopus at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Big Head’s first task was to predict the result of Brazil v Croatia – the opening match of the 2014 World Cup.

He was given three choices: eat a fish hung from a Brazilian flag, a fish hung from a Croatian flag or a fish hung from a football to indicate a draw. He chose to back the hosts. Back the turtle and go make some money, right?

France manager Didier Deschamps has reportedly called for an investigation after a drone hovered over their training session.

There are suggestions a drone – a small unmanned flying machine generally used to spy on military targets – flew over the training camp in Ribeirao Preto yesterday. News agency Ansa claims many of the players joked about the drone, but that coach Deschamps and his staff were less amused by the incident.

They fear one of their opponents in the World Cup, or even the French media, are attempting to spy on closed training sessions. Don't, whatever you do, accuse them of paranoia.